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Popeye
This article is about the character. For the franchise as a whole, see Popeye franchise. For other meanings, see Popeye (disambiguation). Popeye is a sailor character and protagonist appearing in comics and animated cartoons, known for his squinting (or entirely missing) right eye, huge forearms with two anchor tattoos, skinny upper arms, and corncob pipe. He can occasionally be seen smoking his pipe but usually he toots it like a tugboat and sometimes uses it as a weapon by blowing the smoke in his enemies faces. His strength varies among his portrayals: as per the original comics, he is superhumanly strong and can lift huge objects, while in later adaptations he is not quite as mighty until he gains a boost in strength by eating spinach. He is known to mutter when he speaks and mangle the English language (e.g, he calls elephants and infants "elephinks" and "infinks", respectively). Popeye's creator, E. C. Segar, characterized him as violent and uncivilized yet introspective and with a high moral fiber. In World War II-era animated shorts, Popeye was a member of the U. S. Navy and was sometimes seen fighting the Germans and Japanese. The cartoons with these battle scenes have often been banned from television for being "politically incorrect." Popeye's portrayal in the animated adaptation has alternately been criticized for giving him a substance dependency as a means to solve all of life's problems, or praised for bringing children to eat healthy. Character history Popeye was created by E. C. Segar and debuted in the January 17, 1929 Thimble Theatre strip. The Popeye character was inspired by a man Segar knew in Chester, Illinois, Frank "Rocky" Fiegel. Popeye's huge popularity led him to be adapted into animation. In the various cartoons he would usually have to rescue his girlfriend Olive Oyl from Bluto/Brutus, his rival and sometimes friend. Some of the cartoons take a different approach, like him rescuing Olive from another threat, dealing with something alone, fighting a small enemy he cannot beat, or watching over his adopted son Swee'Pea. During the WWII years, Popeye changed into a white Navy suit, continuing to look like this in animation from the 1940s through to the 1960s. Also, in 1940s shorts, Popeye gained four nephews named Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pupeye, whose exact relation to Popeye remains unclear. In the fifties, Popeye's cartoon catalog was sold by the Paramount studio to the a.a.p., National Telefilm Associates, U.M.&M. TV Corp., and Harvey Films companies to be broadcast on television. Animated shows were also made for television in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and in 1980 a theatrical movie called Popeye was released and went on to gross $49,823,037; more than double the film's production budget. A more recent television movie called Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy was made in 2004, produced by Mainframe Entertainment for Lions Gate Entertainment and King Features Entertainment. Urban legend Rumor has it that in September 1938 head of Fleischer Studios Max Fleischer, as a thank-you to all artists who moved to his new animation studio in Florida, animated a graphic sexual encounter between his two stars, Betty Boop and Popeye. Reports on this supposed film, known as “''Welcome to Miami'',” range from it being 30 seconds of pencil drawings to a full-color short film. Voiced/Portrayed by *William Costello (a.k.a. Red Pepper Sam) from 1933 to 1935 *Jack Mercer from 1935 until his death in 1984 *Mae Questel from 1945 to 1946 *Harry Welch from 1945 to 1947 *Maurice LaMarche from 1985 to 1990 *Billy West in from 2004 to 2006 *Jackson Beck during the brief time Jack Mercer served in World War II *David Coulier (Robot Chicken) *Jim Cummings (Commercials) *Robin Williams (Live Action Film) *Tom Kenny (2014 animation test) Gallery Popeye Bronzed Blutoguns.jpg Popeye Miniature Blutomuscles.gif Popeye real curly.png Popeye Ersatz Blutochest.gif Popeye A-Bomb.jpg Popeye Dyn-o-MITE.gif Popeye Red as a Sheet.gif Bluto Vanquishes Popeye.gif Popeye Ersatz Blutochest II.gif Popeye Speedo Man.jpg|Popeye's European-produced comics popeye striped number.jpg|Popeye's European-produced comics (II) Popeye Surfer.jpg|Popeye's European-produced comics (III) POPEYE.gif Cartoon popeye-5344.jpg Popeyes spinach-5345.jpg PopeyeAnimaniacs.png|Popeye as he appeared in Animaniacs PopeyeFG.jpg|As he appeared in Family Guy EL12001lg.jpg Popye_hp.png|His appearance in South Park Olive oyl drawn tigether.PNG|Popeye as he appeared in Drawn Together Screen Shot 2016-03-16 at 23.46.56.png|Popeye as he appeared in Spitting Image Oh Popeye.png Picture 2.png Popeye Rolex.jpg|Popeye on a Rolex watch Popeye sculpture sold in 28M.jpg Ain't no fanart.jpeg Muscular hero costume.jpg Muscular overload.jpg Muscle shirt II.JPG Muscle shirt IV.jpg Popeye Begins.jpg|First appearance External links * Popeye | The Home of Popeye the Sailor Man website * [http://www.toonopedia.com/popeye.htm Don Markstein's Toonopedia Popeye page] * Popeye at the Internet Movie Database Category:Characters Category:Popeye the sailor Category:Male Characters Category:Thimble Theatre Category:Famous Studios Category:Fleischer Studios Category:Sailors Category:Live action film characters Category:Men Category:Popeye's family